Washington (CNN) - As Congress leaves town for its August recess, President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans are trying to lay the groundwork for who will have the most leverage when they return to take up the issues of funding the federal government and raising the nation's borrowing limit.

Both sides say the stakes are high - that may be the only thing they agree on.

Washington (CNN) - While House Speaker John Boehner isn't overtly ruling out picking a fight with President Barack Obama over a spending bill, he is laying out an alternative strategy to avoid a government shutdown.

During a closed door meeting on Wednesday with House Republicans, Boehner tried to "gently hold members' hands and walk them away from this," said one GOP source who was in the room.

Washington (CNN) - The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm B. Todd Jones as head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, giving the politically controversial agency its first permanent director since 2006.

Senators voted 53-42 to approve Jones - the ATF's acting director since the fall of 2011 - shortly after he received the bare 60 votes needed to clear a key procedural hurdle.FULL POST

Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” Wednesday that a newly declassified document provided evidence of how the intelligence community has misled Congress about the National Security Agency’s massive surveillance programs.

Washington (CNN) - A Republican lawmaker demanded Wednesday to know why investigators have not captured or killed any of the suspects in the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, pointing out that CNN was able to find a man who some say was the ringleader in the assault that left the ambassador and three other Americans dead.

Eight GOP lawmakers are asking that incoming FBI Director James Comey brief Congress within 30 days about the investigation. They say the administration's inquiry into the September 11, 2011, attacks in Libya has been "simply unacceptable," according to a draft letter obtained by CNN.

(CNN) – Republican Rep. Peter King of New York fired back at Sen. Rand Paul, who accused him of being part of a Republican wing that’s “all for blowing up stuff, but not too concerned with fiscal responsibility.”

The longtime congressman from Long Island argued Paul and his libertarian-leaning views on foreign policy were making “America the enemy.”FULL POST

Washington (CNN) – House Republicans issued a report Wednesday finding that Attorney General Eric Holder gave "deceptive and misleading" testimony, but abandoned accusations that he had perjured himself in May during a hearing on the government's seizure of journalists' phone and email records.

The House Judiciary Committee's Republicans launched an investigation after the hearing because Holder claimed not to know of any potential prosecution of members of the press in leak investigations. After the hearing, the Justice Department acknowledged that Holder had signed a search warrant to seize emails from Fox News Channel reporter James Rosen. The search warrant included a declaration that Rosen was a "co-conspirator" in the leak probe targeting a former State Department contractor.FULL POST

Washington (CNNMoney) - The House on Wednesday approved a bipartisan that ensures lower interest rates on loans for students heading to college this fall.

Members of the House voted 392 to 31 to lower rates for undergraduates taking out government loans this school year to 3.86% - cheaper than the 6.8% interest rate that kicked in on July 1. The new rates would be retroactive and apply to loans taken out after July 1.